5 Easy Weeknight Dinners for Under $10 Per Serve

There is a persistent myth in the food world that eating well costs a lot of money. The idea that nutritious, delicious meals require expensive ingredients, specialist equipment, and hours of preparation has convinced many people that weeknight cooking is too hard and too costly to bother with. The result is an overreliance on takeaway, meal delivery apps, and pre-packaged convenience foods that are neither as satisfying nor as economical as they appear.

The truth is that some of the world's great cuisines were born entirely out of necessity and resourcefulness. The Italian tradition of pasta e fagioli, the Middle Eastern staple of lentil soup, the South-East Asian art of fried rice: these are dishes that transformed simple, cheap ingredients into genuinely extraordinary food. They did not need expensive components. They needed knowledge, seasoning, and technique.

This article gives you five dinners that embody that spirit. Each one costs under ten dollars per serve when made with readily available Australian supermarket ingredients. Each one takes thirty to forty-five minutes of active cooking time at most. And each one is the kind of meal that you will genuinely look forward to eating, not just a sad bowl of something nutritious. With a well-stocked pantry and a bit of practice, these recipes will become weeknight staples that your whole household asks for again and again.

A Note on Pricing

All prices in this article are based on current Coles and Woolworths pricing and assume you are buying the standard sizes of ingredients, not the smallest possible option. In most cases, you will have leftover ingredients that can be used across the week, which brings your effective cost per meal down further. Prices will vary slightly depending on your location and the season, particularly for fresh produce. Buying in-season vegetables, shopping at markets when possible, and choosing home-brand staples where quality is comparable will all help you hit or beat the ten-dollar target comfortably.

Dinner 1: Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with Chilli and Parmesan

This is arguably the greatest cheap dinner in the world, and it has been a staple of Italian home cooking for centuries. The name translates as spaghetti with garlic and oil, which is exactly what it is: pasta tossed with generous amounts of good olive oil, sliced garlic, dried chilli, and a handful of fresh parsley, finished with a snowstorm of parmesan.

The result is deeply savoury, richly flavoured, and intensely satisfying in a way that belies its simplicity. The key is technique: the garlic must be cooked gently in the oil until it is golden and fragrant, never burnt. The pasta water — starchy and salty — is the secret ingredient that helps create a glossy, emulsified sauce that coats every strand.

Ingredients (serves 4, approximately $7–8 total)

• 400g spaghetti (~$1.50)
• 6 cloves garlic (~$0.50)
• 80ml good olive oil (~$1.00)
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes (~$0.20)
• Large handful flat-leaf parsley (~$1.00)
• 60g parmesan, finely grated (~$2.00)
• Salt and black pepper

Method

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to the boil and cook the pasta until just al dente. Reserve at least two cups of the pasta cooking water before draining. While the pasta cooks, thinly slice the garlic and warm the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and cook very gently, stirring occasionally, until it turns light golden, about four or five minutes. Add the chilli flakes and cook for one more minute.

Add the drained pasta to the pan along with half a cup of pasta water. Toss vigorously, adding more pasta water as needed, until the sauce becomes glossy and coats the pasta. Remove from the heat, add the parsley and half the parmesan, and toss again. Serve immediately with the remaining parmesan and plenty of black pepper.

This dish is best eaten the moment it is made. It does not reheat particularly well, so scale the recipe to exactly how many people you are feeding. A squeeze of lemon juice at the end is not traditional but it adds a brightness that many people love.

Dinner 2: Chickpea and Tomato Curry with Rice

A good chickpea curry is one of the most satisfying plant-based meals in existence. It is hearty, warming, deeply spiced, and genuinely filling in a way that surprises people who are used to thinking of vegetarian food as somehow incomplete. This version is based loosely on a chana masala, one of the great dishes of North Indian home cooking.

Tinned chickpeas are a pantry hero: they are cheap, nutritious, and require zero soaking or pre-cooking. Combined with a simple spiced tomato sauce and served over rice, they become something really quite special. This is the kind of meal that tastes better reheated the next day, which makes it ideal for batch cooking.

Ingredients (serves 4, approximately $8–9 total)

• 2 x 400g tins chickpeas, drained (~$2.00)
• 1 x 400g tin crushed tomatoes (~$1.00)
• 1 large onion (~$0.50)
• 4 cloves garlic (~$0.30)
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated (~$0.20)
• 2 tsp ground cumin (~$0.20)
• 2 tsp ground coriander (~$0.20)
• 1 tsp garam masala (~$0.20)
• 1 tsp turmeric (~$0.10)
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 2 cups basmati rice (~$1.00)
• Natural yoghurt and fresh coriander to serve (~$1.50)

Method

Cook the diced onion in a generous glug of oil over medium heat until soft and lightly golden, about eight minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another two minutes, stirring. Add all the spices and stir for one minute until fragrant. Pour in the tinned tomatoes, add a good pinch of salt, and let the sauce simmer for ten minutes.

Add the drained chickpeas and stir well to coat in the sauce. Simmer for a further fifteen to twenty minutes until the sauce has thickened and the chickpeas have absorbed the flavours. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve over fluffy basmati rice with a generous dollop of yoghurt and a handful of fresh coriander.

Leftovers keep well in the fridge for three days and freeze beautifully. Make a double batch on Sunday and you have lunch sorted for much of the week. Add a tin of baby spinach or frozen peas in the last five minutes for extra nutrition and colour.

Dinner 3: Quick Fried Rice with Egg and Vegetables

Fried rice is the ultimate pantry-clearing dinner, and once you understand the basic technique, you can make an excellent version with virtually any combination of vegetables, protein, and aromatics you have on hand. The version here is a simple egg and vegetable fried rice, but it is a framework rather than a fixed recipe.

The single most important rule of good fried rice is to use cold, cooked rice. Freshly cooked rice is too wet and steamy: it clumps together and becomes gluey in the pan. Day-old rice from the fridge, on the other hand, has dried out slightly and fries beautifully, developing those slightly crispy edges that make the dish so satisfying. This is why fried rice is traditionally a way to use leftover rice.

Ingredients (serves 4, approximately $6–7 total)

• 3 cups cooked white rice, cold (~$0.80)
• 4 eggs (~$1.50)
• 1 cup frozen peas (~$0.40)
• 2 carrots, diced (~$0.40)
• 3 spring onions, sliced (~$0.50)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (~$0.20)
• 3 tbsp soy sauce (~$0.30)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil (~$0.50)
• Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Get your wok or largest frying pan extremely hot before you add anything. This is the key to good fried rice: high heat. Add a splash of vegetable oil, then fry the garlic for thirty seconds. Add the carrots and stir-fry for two or three minutes. Add the frozen peas and stir-fry for another minute.

Push everything to the side of the pan, add a little more oil to the centre, and scramble the eggs in the cleared space until just set. Mix the eggs through the vegetables. Add the cold rice and toss everything together vigorously, breaking up any clumps. Drizzle over the soy sauce and toss again. Remove from the heat and drizzle with sesame oil. Top with the sliced spring onions.

Variations: add diced ham, leftover chicken, prawns, tinned corn, edamame, or any vegetables that need using up. A splash of oyster sauce in addition to the soy sauce adds wonderful depth. A few drops of chilli oil at the table lets each person adjust the heat to their preference.

Dinner 4: Sheet Pan Sausages with Roasted Vegetables

Sheet pan dinners are a revelation for busy weeknights because they require almost no active cooking time. You prep everything, put it in the oven, and walk away for thirty-five minutes. The oven does the work. When you come back, you have a complete, balanced, genuinely delicious meal with almost no washing up.

This version uses budget-friendly pork sausages and whatever vegetables you have on hand. The trick is to cut the vegetables small enough that they cook in the same amount of time as the sausages, and to season them generously so they develop good flavour in the oven. A drizzle of honey over everything in the last five minutes of cooking creates beautiful caramelisation that takes the dish to another level.

Ingredients (serves 4, approximately $9–10 total)

• 8 thick pork sausages (~$4.00)
• 3 medium potatoes, cut into cubes (~$1.00)
• 2 zucchini, thickly sliced (~$1.50)
• 1 red capsicum, cut into chunks (~$1.50)
• 1 large onion, cut into wedges (~$0.50)
• Olive oil, salt, pepper, dried rosemary or Italian herbs (~$0.50)

Method

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Spread the potato cubes on a large baking tray, drizzle with oil, season generously with salt, pepper, and herbs, and toss to coat. Roast for fifteen minutes while you prep the other vegetables.

Add the zucchini, capsicum, and onion to the tray, push the potato to the edges, and nestle the sausages in amongst the vegetables. Return to the oven for a further thirty to thirty-five minutes, turning everything halfway through, until the sausages are cooked through and golden and the vegetables are tender and caramelised at the edges.

Serve directly from the tray with a spoonful of mustard or tomato sauce. Clean-up is a single tray. The leftovers slice up beautifully for a next-day sandwich with wholegrain mustard and the roasted capsicum — arguably better than the original meal.

Dinner 5: Lentil and Vegetable Soup with Crusty Bread

Soup gets an unfair reputation as diet food or sick food, something you eat reluctantly rather than enthusiastically. A really good lentil soup, however, is one of the most deeply satisfying and nourishing meals imaginable. It is thick, hearty, warmly spiced, and filling in the way that only legumes can be.

Red lentils are a pantry superstar: they are cheap, they require no soaking, and they dissolve into a thick, creamy texture as they cook without needing to be blended. A bag of red lentils from the supermarket costs about two dollars and will feed a family several times over.

Ingredients (serves 4–6, approximately $7–8 total)

• 1.5 cups red lentils (~$1.50)
• 1 large onion, diced (~$0.50)
• 3 cloves garlic (~$0.20)
• 2 carrots, diced (~$0.60)
• 2 stalks celery, diced (~$0.40)
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes (~$1.00)
• 1 litre vegetable or chicken stock (~$1.50)
• 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1/2 tsp turmeric (~$0.30)
• Lemon juice, salt, pepper
• Crusty bread to serve (~$2.00)

Method

Soften the onion, carrot, and celery in a generous splash of olive oil over medium heat for eight to ten minutes. Add the garlic and spices and stir for one minute. Add the rinsed lentils, tinned tomatoes, and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for twenty to twenty-five minutes until the lentils have completely dissolved and the soup is thick and creamy.

Season generously with salt, pepper, and a good squeeze of lemon juice. The lemon is not optional: it brightens the whole soup and makes it taste genuinely vibrant rather than heavy. Serve with crusty bread for dipping. A swirl of olive oil and a pinch of smoked paprika on top before serving makes the bowl look as good as it tastes.

Making Budget Cooking Sustainable

The biggest secret to cooking cheaply on weeknights is not a collection of recipes: it is a pantry. When your kitchen is stocked with dried pasta, tinned tomatoes, tinned legumes, dried lentils, rice, good olive oil, soy sauce, and a solid selection of dried spices, you can make any of the meals in this article at very short notice without a supermarket run.

Invest in building your pantry gradually, buying one or two new staples each week. Within a month or two, you will have the foundation for dozens of cheap, delicious meals. The upfront cost feels real, but the ongoing savings are significant: a pantry-stocked kitchen means you almost never need to resort to expensive convenience food or takeaway just because you ran out of ideas.

Combined with a little planning — even just taking five minutes on Sunday to think about what you will eat each night that week — this is the genuine path to eating well without spending a lot. Cooking from scratch is not a sacrifice. With the right recipes, it is one of the most satisfying and rewarding things you can do for yourself and your household.

Planning Your Weekly Menu in Advance

One of the biggest barriers to cheap weeknight cooking is the "what's for dinner?" panic that strikes at 5pm when you are tired and hungry. The solution is simple: spend five minutes on Sunday deciding what you will eat each night that week. You do not need a detailed meal plan — just a rough outline of five dinners that uses mostly the same ingredients across multiple meals.

For example, if you buy a bunch of fresh coriander for the chickpea curry, plan a meal later in the week that also uses coriander. If you buy a block of parmesan for the pasta, plan another pasta night or a risotto. This cross-utilisation of ingredients dramatically reduces both food waste and shopping costs. Write your plan on a sticky note on the fridge — not on your phone where you will forget to look at it.

Shopping Smarter for Budget Cooking

The cost of any meal starts at the supermarket, and a few simple habits can meaningfully reduce what you spend without reducing what you eat. First, always shop with a list built from your weekly menu. Unplanned supermarket visits are where budgets go to die — you end up buying things you do not need and forgetting things you do.

Second, check the unit price rather than the package price. A larger bag of rice or lentils almost always works out cheaper per gram than a smaller one, and dried goods keep for a long time. Third, shop the specials. Both Coles and Woolworths rotate significant discounts on proteins — chicken thighs, mince, and canned goods are frequently on special, and building your weekly menu around what is discounted saves real money over time. The five dinners in this article are all flexible enough to accommodate different proteins or vegetables based on what is affordable when you shop.